No fixed tips/ tip shape?

[Tom Simes]

On Wed, 2 Feb 2005 11:37:47 EST
Rcmaster199 at aol.com wrote:


> About 3 years I started gluing a simple flat plate made of lite ply to
>  serve 
> as wing tip and have been doing that since, it worked that well for
> me.  The inevitable runway scrape, doesn't do anywhere near the
> damage, so its a win  both ways. Lightweight too

I've been doing the 09 plate 1/8" light ply wing tips on my sport
planes for a while also for the same durability and simplicity
reasons.  One thing I do though which may be a little different is my
tips only duplicate the outboard rib profile following the leading edge.
Once the tips hit their maximum width, I just carry that dimension
straight back to the trailing edge and radius the corners.  In theory
the tips act as winglets to help terminate some of the tip vortices as
well as acting as a barrier to spanwise flow spilling off the ends of
the wings.  Whether all that is true or just wishful theory I don't
know - but they are easy to cover, and I don't worry about carving
symmetrical shapes or dragging the occasional tip.

All the aerodynamic discussions lately sure make me yearn for the smoke
tunnel I had access to in school.  Theory is great, but it's no
substitute for observation.

-- 
Tom

_____________________________________________________________________

       |  ,  |               Tom Simes
---------(@)---------        AMA 230068
        --|--                NSRCA 3830
          '                  nsrca at shinymetalass.com
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